Page 17 of Echoes of Us

He waved me off. “Iwasan excellent player,” he corrected. “Oh look, there’s Col,” he said, calling to him.

Colin saw us and made his way over. Noah was still half-leaning on me with his arm holding himself up. Colin looked at us with a slight frown. He said his hellos, handed me my surprisingly cold canned beer, and sat on the armrest beside me. Colin knew Holly from high school, too, and they all started talking about things I had no idea about. Noah would sometimes stop and explain something to me, to which I just nodded and sipped my beer.

Noah seemed a little restless. He’d sink back on the couch, cross and uncross his legs, push off, and crouch over it. It was like he couldn’t sit still, like a coiled energy ball. He was touchy, too, but I wouldn’t complain about that. Noah’s thigh and shoulder were pressed against me if he was sitting, and if he was crouching, his arm would be over my shoulders. Every time he got up, he’d lean closer and press his hand on my leg to push himself off. Colin glanced at us several times, but he said nothing.

The girl from before asked him to come dance, but he refused, and I tried to bite down a smile. Holly was nicer than I had thought. She didn’t comment on my appearance again, and whenever Colin and Noah started talking about people from school, she’d ask me about myself. The room kept getting hotter and hotter, and having Noah over me didn’t help. I pulled at my shirt collar for the tenth time in an hour when Colin asked if I wanted to go to the terrace. I agreed, starting to push off when Noah’s hand found my wrist.

“Where are you going?”

“Outside. It’s hot in here,” I replied.

He let go of me. His eyes were wider, adding to his usual magnetic charm.

“Oh, okay. Just don’t leave without saying goodbye, okay?” he said.

I followed Colin and sighed as soon as we got outside.

“Thank you for that,” I told him, and he gave me a wan smile. The view was spectacular from here. The entire city sprawled out below us, lights twinkling like stars.

“Hey, Att,” Colin said.

I turned to face him. “Yeah?”

A frown crossed his face as he bit his lip, clearly thinking through what he wanted to say. Oh no. Had he figured it out too? I hadn’t been staring at him that much today. I had tried to control it this time.

“I don’t want you to get mad at me for asking you this,” he said with a chuckle. Damn, he did figure it out.

I sighed, resigning myself to another talk. “I won’t.”

His eyes searched mine. “Do you like him?”

I knew it. Was I being that obvious?

“Yeah,” I answered simply.

He nodded, then made a face. “I was kinda hoping you would say no.”

“Are you mad at me?”

“Not at all, Att, not because he’s a boy. I don’t have a problem with that,” he said quickly.

I relaxed. “Then…?”

He looked back at the view. “Noah’s a sucker for attention, but he’s not very good at the follow-through. I was wondering why he kept hanging around you or asking me about you. You’re just really different. I didn’t understand why he wanted to be your friend so badly. I don’t want that to sound like an insult. There’s nothing wrong with you. You’re just really different from his usual crowd,” he explained.

I kind of got that too. I had no idea why he was so nice to me either.

“So? Did you figure it out?”

“I just told you,” he said with a nod.

“You did?”

“Noah’s a sucker for attention,” he repeated.

My stomach dropped. “You think he knows,” I said, and he assented. Fuck.

“I don’t know what about you makes me want to be overprotective. It’s like you have this innocence that I don’t want anybody to mess with. I think that’s what gets Ezra too.”

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